Our family travel took us to Tennessee recently and among our adventures there we stopped at several amazing attractions that are not to be missed. We landed in Nashville and made our way around the western part of the state. On our second day we drove from Nashville to Chattanooga and on our drive stopped first at Ruby Falls.

Ruby Falls is an amazing underground waterfall. Upon arrival make sure you have shoes that don’t slip due to the underground water the walkways can become slippery. You should also bring a sweatshirt or jacket since it can be a little chilly. If you have an infant you should definitely baby wear but the tour is doable.

You can purchase a ticket for Ruby Falls at the gate-ask about AAA discounts and many of the local gas stations also had coupons. You can also buy a group discounted ticket which includes Ruby Falls, Rock City and the Incline Railway-it’s a great deal but…..it’s all day and a ton of walking so make sure you’re up for it. Make sure you also use the restroom since the tour is about an hour underground and no bathrooms are available.

You then wait for your tour and are whisked down and elevator into the cave and wait for your tour guide. They also take a professional picture for purchase later. You can take pictures during the tour though. It’s about an hour of guided walking-both ways. They have all kinds of fun lighting and an area where you can touch the stalagmites. Only touch the one in the specific area so no damage come to others. It was so much fun.

The crowning glory at the end was the actual falls which is pretty amazing!

The end has a playground a quick serve food in case you’re hungry oh and that picure they took. I’m actually a sucker for these-but bring your money they are super expensive!

Once we were done at Ruby Falls we headed over to the Incline Railway-to give us a little sit down break. We started at the top of Lookout Mountain instead of the bottom. This was by far my favorite part of the day. The railway goes directly down the mountain and is the steepest railway in the world. It can be a little scary for the littles. There’s a fun pizza place and ice cream shop at the bottom.

We then made our way to Rock City-I was exhausted so I took a sitter and let the two of them run amuck. We didn’t start early enough in the day and only made it to Rock City an hour before they closed. It was so beautiful.

Rock City has every kind of plant you can think of and a trail which leads to Lookout Mountain where you can see several states at a time.

If you’re in the Nashville/Chattanooga area these are not to be missed! #Takethetrip

Fifty Nifty Unites States from 13 original colonies….we are at it again and racking in some states on our most recent family trip. We jumped in the old family truckster and battled pouring rain and early hours to make it to the airport late for this one. So late that we missed the next two flights since they were full so we decided to camp it out in the airport for awhile and enjoy ourselves.

I have been making family travel a priority and we are working on all fifty states before our girl leaves our nest. I have been using Southwest deals to get us to some fun places so if you’d love to make this happen for you family then sign up for the emails. They run deals I would say every three months and for this one Nashville came up and I snagged it.

Tennessee has a ton to offer families traveling so come along with us and see a snapshot of our trip. I will be doing follow up posts with more details on each attraction. How do I plan these trips? Honestly it takes time…and I heavily rely on fellow bloggers who have gone places. Bloggers are such a great resource. They give honest opinions and find things trip advisor just can’t.

Our trip lasted 4 nights and 5 days and we started off in Nashville!

Nashville-Day 1-well we missed our flight so yay-I had to scrap our plans pretty much for the whole day but….I was able to make our planned dinner at The Oprayland Gaylord.

This hotel is amazing!!! It’s basically a complex. You have to pay a hefty price to park and basically get lost doing it but once you’re in the parking lot head on over through the conservatory doors. You will enter right into the hotels amazing conservatory with plants and waterfalls, streaming lights and several restaurants. We chose American Cafe because it was right by the jumping water and it also had the most kid friendly menu. You can also order sushi if you like. The meals are amazing and a complete splurge-so bring the money. Or you can pay to park and walk through several areas,the lobby-not to be missed and ride the glass elevator up and down-oh yes we did. Don’t drive by this one-go in.

Chattanooga Day 2-We made the trek from Nashville to Chattanooga. Our destination was the Historic Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel but we had plans to stop at Ruby Falls, The Incline Railway, and Rock City which technically is in Georgia so number 8 check!. We stopped at the Falls first since it was actually on the way to the hotel. After walking our feet off we headed to our hotel.

Oh MY Word-you must stay here! It’s amazing. We opted for the train car room-you can also get a regular room and it was worth it!

Tons of posh eating all around the area-seems to becoming hipsterish. It was quite nice to have a variety of dining in walking distance.

Pigeon Forge-Day 3-We started our day with breakfast and a car ride to Pigeon Forge. Our hotel was the Christmas Inn and it did not disappoint. As you can see I like to do all the things. We got out of our car and walked into Christmas music!

Our day was spent at the Titanic Museum-yes it was awesome.

And the Old Mill for dinner-so good. I had no idea Pigeon Forge was so awesome and we will be adding this for another trip in the teen years-so much to do!

Great Smoky Mountains-Day 4 We stayed two nights at the Christmas Inn due to the fact that there is no lodging inside the national park. We drove through the entire park-as quick as we could and headed over to the Great Smoky Mountain National Railroad in North Carolina-number 9 if you’re counting. We did a four hour train ride through the Smokys and while it was a bit pricey this was a once in a lifetime thing! We also drove through the Cherokee Nation which was really interesting.

Back to Nashville and Home Day 5-I made a late flight ressie since it’s a 3.5 drive back to Nashville but you can do it! I was actually able to squeeze in one more thing that we missed on our initial day. Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage-yes I am a history geek. It was pouring and we were so wet but we went and did it and it was so worth it.

This was one of our best trips yet and I never realized how much fun was in Nashville!!! More posts in details to come. Come on-fill up your book-make your memories-they’re not too young or too old. All we will have left is love and memories so get out there!

I am always looking online for fun family places to stay when we travel. I tend to love places that have a cute theme or attraction, are kid friendly, are close to adventures and save me money!

Our family recently scored a deal on tickets to Southern California and I began my booking agenda. We found so many fun family things to do-find out what in my previous post. I found the Anaheim Majestic close to everything! I saved by booking directly through the hotel itself. I often find that using hotel search engines are great ways to locate hotels but are not always great ways to save money. I often get a better deal by going straight to the source. I ended up saving a little over a hundred dollars by booking in full and in advance and the rate was lass when booking through the hotel as well.

Anaheim Majestic is an adorable Bavarian themed hotel just down the street from Disneyland. In fact, they are a good neighbor hotel to Disneyland and offer a variety of services for families planning on visiting the parks including a super comfy shuttle bus that runs often and advance tickets sold by Disney in their lobby.You can also get transfers to Universal for a fee.

We visited during the Christmas season and were lucky to have the hotel decked out for the holiday season!

The hotel also has a dragon theme with poems and riddles written throughout the hotel on the walls. The courtyard has a large dragon, pool and fountains.

(Uhem pictures with littles-the struggle is real!)

The rooms were wonderful, kept with the theme and had plenty of room. The hotel also has a full serve restaurant and buffet breakfast. There’s also a deli for late night snack and souvenirs.

We loved the convenience, family friendliness and price of this hotel! The only draw back was is you have a rental car then you have to pay a daily fee to park on property but they do also offer a shuttle from the hotel.